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Costco (COST) Rises As Market Takes a Dip: Key Facts

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Costco (COST - Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $952.36, demonstrating a +1.35% change from the preceding day's closing price. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 1.6% loss on the day. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 1.23%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 2.24%.

Coming into today, shares of the warehouse club operator had lost 4.8% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector gained 2.64%, while the S&P 500 gained 2.25%.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Costco in its upcoming release. The company is expected to report EPS of $5.8, up 12.62% from the prior-year quarter. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $85.83 billion, reflecting a 7.7% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $17.97 per share and revenue of $274.97 billion, which would represent changes of +11.55% and +8.06%, respectively, from the prior year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Costco. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.39% fall in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. At present, Costco boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Costco is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 52.3. This indicates a premium in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 21.93.

Meanwhile, COST's PEG ratio is currently 5.84. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. Retail - Discount Stores stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.61 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 169, positioning it in the bottom 32% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.

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